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On A Night Like This
On A Night Like This is the second single from Kylie Minogue's 7th studio album "Light Years." It was written by Steve Torch, Graham Stack, Mark Taylor & Brian Rawling and produced by Graham Stack & Mark Taylor. The single was released on September 11, 2000. The critical reception towards the song were positive and many critics highlighted it as an album standout and praised the production. Song Composition Steve Torch, Graham Stack, Mark Taylor & Brian Rawling had originally "On a Night Like This" for Swedish recording artist Pandora (whose recorded version had appeared on her 1999 album "No Regrets"). The writers had hoped to gain impact from the song's commercial reception, so they decided to give it to a well-established music artist & they submitted it to Parlophone, and Kylie recorded her vocals to an identical backing track as Pandora's version, in mid-2000. However, Greek singer Anna Vissi obtained rights to record the song for her album, Everything I Am but the musical arrangement was different to Minogue's and Pandora's version. "On a Night Like This" is a dance-pop song. Influenced by house music and nu-disco elements, the song features acoustics guitar riffs and synthesizers as core instruments. According to the published music sheet at Musicnotes.com which is owned by Fintage Music Publishing, the song is set in the key C minor. The song is moderately paced with 130 beats per minute. According to musicnotes.com, the song's musical styles include adult contemporary, dance music, eurodance, Europop and pop rock. For the re-released version, the song is composed as an orchestral song. According to Kitty Empire from The Guardian, the song "transforms the teenage-crush fervour of the original into a cool, big-band seduction." Scott Kara from New Zealand Herald called it a sweeping and grand serenade song. Annie Zaleski from The A.V. Club described the version as "romantic" while stating it turns into a brassy R&B torch song thanks to a soaring gospel choir and dramatic strings. Chart Performance "On A Night Like This" debuted at number one on the Australian Singles Chart, making it her seventh number one in Australia. It spent seventeen weeks in the top fifty, becoming one of Kylie's longest charting singles. As with her previous number one single "Spinning Around", the was also certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 units, and became the twenty-seventh most successful single of 2000 in Australia. The song led to Kylie being honoured as the artist having the most singles debuting at number one. It also gave her a record for having the largest fall from the number one position—falling to number five. It was also successful in the United Kingdom where it peaked at number two, behind Modjo's song "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)". The song entered at number forty on the New Zealand Singles Chart, rising to thirty-five where it peaked. It then debuted at number thirty-three in Sweden until it rose to thirty-one, staying there for two consecutive weeks. The song stayed only one week in Finland, debuting at number twenty. The song peaked at number sixty-nine in France and sixty-four in the Netherlands. The song has sold over 170,000 units in the UK, as of March 2014. Critical Reception "On a Night Like This" received generally favorable reviews from music critics. Mark Edwards from Stylus Magazine said that it, along with her duet with Robbie Williams on "Kids", "cemented her comeback, and then came the aforementioned mega-song." Jason Shawahn from About.com gave it a positive review, saying alongside "Please Stay" and "Spinning Around" are "a blessing for domestic music consumers". Scott Kara from New Zealand Herald described the original as "a swirling, late night club pop tune." Matt James from Popmatters described the song as "bedroom-eyed" and "nightclubber", while stating it's still hot enough to melt large glaciers. Although Chris True from Allmusic highlighted it as an album stand out, he awarded the track two-and-a-half stars. Nick Levine from Digital Spy said that the song is a "catchy dance-pop song". A reviewer for NME compared it to Spiller's song "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", writing that the song "works because it doesn't revolve awkwardly round a random disco beat". NME's Stevie Chick said the song was lacking passion and "unremarkable". PopMatters gave the album a positive review, but he was disappointed by the record label, and the public, for not releasing the single in the United States, commenting, ""On a Night Like This”, a track that is meant to go right to number one on the Billboard Club Tracks list and while being completely ignored by the general public." The version from the "Abbey Road Sessions" was positive as well. Robert Corpsey from Digital Spy highlighted the song as an album standout, enjoying that the lyric content stood out. Philip Matusavage from MusicOMH found it a "confident" highlight and "transforming the fairly-anonymous Europop of the original into a swaggering big band number which no contestant on X Factor could pull off." Music Video The music video for "On a Night Like This" was directed by Douglas Avery. It was filmed in Monte Carlo and was loosely based on Martin Scorsese's 1995 crime drama movie "Casino" with Kylie herself portraying a character loosely based on Sharon Stone's bored trophy wife and Blade Runner actor Rutger Hauer portraying her mob boss partner. Sean Smith (who wrote the biography "Kylie") felt the video was "broody" and "atmospheric." Kylie wore three dresses in the video; a pink, green and beige see-through dress, a black dress and a blue cocktail dress. While she was in the last two dresses, she also wore an estimated $2 million worth of jewelry. The video starts with a mob-related scene, with the men speaking in French. The video translates with subtitles: "Matters are not handled in this way/Here in Monte Carlo/Things are closely watched/The authorities are extremely vigilant/The things you ask of us/Are not so easy". As the song starts, Kylie is on a diving board over a pool; she jumps in with while wearing an expensive Versace. After she sings the chorus, she undresses into her underwear and looking at the mobsters, throws her dress across towards their window. As the second verse starts, she appears in another Versace costume in a Limousine. As the chorus arrives, Kylie appears in a Monte Carlo casino, and wins money. She later goes home where her mob boss lover sees her, as she comes into the hallway and smashes a green glass vase. As the song ends she steps onto a porch, undresses again and he can only stare. The video ends with Kylie stepping down from the porch and fades to black. The original ending had shown footage of Kylie both full-frontal and back nude. NME had reportedly published an article regarding the nude scene, but Avery had stated that no nude shots were ever created. Category:Songs Category:Singles